Vandalism to train cars just the latest

Christopher W. Bradley

The man who disturbed the vandals at the station last week has said that this is just the latest act of vandalism to hit the riverside this month.

Last week on Monday night, the Royal Deeside Railway in Banchory was hit by the most significant act of vandalism in its history.

What is believed to be a gang of youths were disturbed by the Ghillie of the estate in the middle of doing between £10,000 and £15,000 worth of damage to 50-year-old locomotives and carriages.

The Ghillie, Brian Sim, was alerted by his neighbour that there was a gang of youths near the fishing huts. He said: “I kept looking around, and I ended up hearing voices speaking near the railway.

“So I drove up with no lights on, and at this point not realising there had been any damage done, I put the lights on and they scarpered.”

“If I had known that they had damaged the carriages I would’ve driven down the road and caught them.”

Sim added that there had been a few smaller incidents over the last few weeks, most significantly, about a fortnight prior to the damage to the carriages. The portable toilet for the workmen working on the path by the River Dee was burned in the night.

“The boy that was doing the job came back the next morning and the toilet was just a blob of molten plastic,” he explained.

Alexander Burnett, owner of the estate from which the Deeside Railway rent the land, said: “I’m very sad anddissapointed that anybody would take any joy in damaging someone else’s hard work, especially when it is of a charitable and voluntary nature.”

The Royal Deeside Railway have launched an appeal to try and raise the costs of repair, the details can be found on: www.deeside-railway.co.uk.